Aripaka Ramesh Babu has acquired fame for carving artefacts of the size of a poppy seed

Aripaka Ramesh Babu, a 34-year-old mobile phone mechanic from the city, has acquired fame for carving artefacts of the size of a poppy seed and successfully arranging 16 pieces in the eye of a needle. All these 16 pieces have been designed based on Lord Siva -- such as Sivalingam, Dhamarukam and Trisoolam – each weighting less than two milligrams and a height of less than one millimetre. This fete gained him entry into the Indian Book of Records and made him think of winning a Guinness record.

“I am into the art from the early childhood and my attraction turned towards the micro art in my high school days. Fortunately, my parents understood my passion for the art and encouraged me a lot,” says Mr. Ramesh Babu, who entered into the mobile phone mechanism business after completing his ITI in electronics from a local institute.

The miniature of Lord Buddha of one millimetre height was his first work that brought him fame. “The photograph of miniature Buddha standing on the tip of a ball pin was published in a newspaper. It gave me a lot of encouragement and made me think of working on something novel,” recalls Mr. Ramesh Babu, who has made micro Ganesh and ‘Panumatta’ Sivalingam, each, 0.1 mm high.

“There is no balance available to weigh these two pieces,” he smiles. This technology-loving artiste who spends his leisure time browsing the web, finds that Williard Wigan of England possessed the record of making nine micro-articles and fitting them into a needle hole. “It prompted me to make 16 pieces and arrange them in a needle hole. I used gold to make these pieces,” he says. Besides a Guinness record, Mr. Ramesh Babu is dreaming of opening a museum for the micro art in the years to come.

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Workers carryingout repairs to Visakhapatnam District Collector's Office, as it was damaged in Cyclone Hudhud in 2014 October. The majestic heritage building was designed and built by Dutch engineering company Gannon Dunkerly in 1865 and completed by 1914. Photos: C.V. Subrahmanyam